The next stop was Central Avenue itself.  I pulled down about half a block and parked on the west side of the street and put
a quarter into a parking meter.  There are no meters on the east side and no  parking is allowed on that side.  I got out of
the car and took several photos of the buildings that still remain.  I got a great shot of the old Neve Furniture building (no
longer Neve, of course).  It appeared to be freshly painted and from what I understand, recently sold to a new owner.  I did
not recognize any of the store names.  I tried to take as many pictures as I could of the avenue.  Of course, an entire strip
of stores on the west side - from Cornaga Avenue going north on Central had been torn down sometime in the late 1970s.
No longer there were the corner Lowe Drug Store (later the Pink Poodle), the Central Stationary Store (Colony Card Shop),
Dalsimer Florist, the pizza parlor, W. T. Grant, Elfenbein Bakery - and of course, the bowling alley and the group of suites
that occupied the second story of the building.  That entire group had been completely torn down and replaced by a "newer"
strip of one level stores sometime in the late 1980s.  The spot that had been occupied by a department store (Nebenzahl's
Department Store - middle of the block on the west side) in the 1920s is now a "garden walk-through" which leads to
Beach 21st Street (White Street).  The former F. W. Woolworth store is now occupied by a notions shop.

 

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